Spanish Armada

battle_name=Battle of Gravelines

Causes

Philip's motives were both religious and political. In Mary's reign, he had been king consort of England, when the queen had seen fit to have a number of heretics burned at the stake in order to exert her authority in matters of conscience. This experience proved a strong incentive to the English in resisting what they called Papistry, which led to an alliance with the Dutch Estates when they rebelled against the authority of Philip II in the Spanish Netherlands. At this time, Elizabeth I of England was regarded by much of Catholic Europe as a bastard and a usurper of the crown of England. Philip was antagonised by her refusal to return England to the fold of the church; in addition, he and the Vatican were concerned at the reduction in their incomes owing to the increasing separation of northern Europe from their influence.

Related Topics:
Mary - Dutch Estates - Elizabeth I of England - Bastard - Vatican

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In 1570 Pope Pius V issued an encyclical in 1570 against Elizabeth I, excommunicating her (Pope Pius V. Regnans in execeisis, Feb 25, 1570):

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"...she has commanded the books containing manifest heresy should be distributed throughout the whole kingdom...we are necessarily compelled to take up against her the weapons of justice... we declare the aforesaid Elizabeth to be a heretic and an abettor of heretics, and we declare her, together with her supporters.. to have incurred the sentence of excommunication and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ."

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Three months later a Papal Bull was issued against Elizabeth giving special licence to her subjects to take up arms against her, absolving Roman Catholics in advance from their sins in so doing (Damnatio et Ecommunicatio Elizabetae Reginae Angliae, &c. Datum Romaw, &c., 1570, 5 cal. Maii, Pontificatus Nostri Anno 5):

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"..Elizabeth, the pretended Queen of England, a slave of wickedness, lending thereunto a helping hand, with whom, as in a sanctuary the most pernicious of all men have found a refuge. The very woman having seized on the kingdom, and monstrously usurping the supreme place of the Head of the Church in all England, and the chief authority and jurisdiction thereof, has again brought back the said kingdom into miserable destruction, which was then newly reduced to the Catholic faith and good fruits.... We do out of the fullness of our Apostolic power declare the aforesaid Elizabeth, being a heretic, and favourer of heretics, and her adherents in the matters aforesaid, to have incurred sentence of anathema, and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ. And moreover we declare her to be deprived of her pretended title to the Kingdom aforesaid, and of all dominion, dignity, and privilege whatsoever... And we do command and interdict all and every, the nobleman, subjects, people, and others aforesaid, that they presume not to obey her or her admonitions, mandates, and laws; and those who shall do the contrary we do strike with the sentence of anathema."

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Three years later in 1573, 15 years before the Armada set sail a treaty was signed by the King of Spain and the Pope to invade England and exterminate the protestant heresy. The building of the Armada was commenced in 1584, three years before the execution of Mary Stuart Mary I of Scotland in 1587, following of her conviction for conspiracy in the attempted assassination of Elizabeth.

Related Topics:
Mary I of Scotland - 1587

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To King Philip of Spain, the armada was to be a glorious crusade against the enemies of the faith, to return England to the fold of Catholicism under Rome's blessing. The Bull had solemnly conferred Elizabeth's kingdom upon Philip II, "to have and to hold as tributary and feudatory to the Papal Chair." The religious antagonism was increased by economic competition in trade with the Spanish Empire in America, and by privateering and piracy.

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The matter of England's disruption (along with France) of the annual bullion-run by the Spanish treasure fleet from Peru and Mexico to the port of Seville in Spain was of critical importance to Philip. The Spanish were also vexed by the matter of England's direct interference in the revolt against Spanish rule in the Netherlands. The purpose of the armada expedition was to put a stop to these matters, whether by invasion of England or by the credible threat of such invasion.

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England had with circumspection, joined the Eighty Years' War on the side of the Dutch Protestant United Provinces, led in revolt against Spain by William I of Orange. Their territory was roughly the modern provinces of Friesland, North and South Holland and Utrecht. A small English force had been sent to The Netherlands in their support and was present at the Battle of Zutphen in 1586.

Related Topics:
Eighty Years' War - United Provinces - William I of Orange - Friesland - North - South Holland - Utrecht - Zutphen - 1586

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On 29 July 1587, Pope Sixtus V granted Papal authority to overthrow Elizabeth, who had been declared a heretic by Pope Pius V, and place whomever he chose on the throne of England. Pope Sixtus had promised a contribution of a million gold crowns towards the expenses of the armada, but when he saw to what end it had come, he refused to pay a single ducat. In vain Phillip urged that the Pope had instigated him to the attempt, that the expedition had been undertaken in the sacred cause of the church, and that the loss ought to be borne mutually. Sixtus would not hear him. He could not be expected, he said, to give a million of money for an Armada which had accomplished nothing, and was now at the bottom of the sea. (Oott. Libt., Titus, B.2. Strype, Annals, vol iii., p.522)

Related Topics:
29 July - 1587 - Pope Sixtus V - Heretic - Pope Pius V

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At the launch of the Armada "a special mass for the success of the Spanish Armada to crush protestant England" was held, along with a special blessing upon the fleet by the Catholic Hierarchy of Spain:

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:"On April 25th he went to the Cathedral of Lisbon to take from its altar the blessed standard of the expedition, as an announcement that it was about to sail and an advertisement as to the holy nature of the mission. Every man who was to sail with it had confessed and communicated.... Now the Captain General went solemnly to the Cathedral, accompanied by His Most Catholic Majesty Viceroy, the Cardinal Archduke. The Archbishop himself said mass and pronounced a general benediction on the Enterprise. The standard was lifted from the altar and borne across the Plaza Mayor to the Dominican Convent where the duke himself laid it on that altar in token of personal dedication. Then the banner was borne back between kneeling lines of soldiers and sailors to whom friars read the papal absolution, and indulgences granted to all partakers on this most holy crusade." (The Defeat of the Spanish Armada by Garret Mattingly, page 207.)

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